New UPgraded 1lb Bags!

A lot has changed in the past two years at Up Coffee Roasters. The rebrand has allowed us to better represent our own passion for coffee. In doing so, we abandoned the plain white ziplock bags, and in its place we have been packing our beans in a sleek, black tin-tie bag. However, issues arose regarding their stability, look & feel, and the tin-tie itself.

We’ve Heard Your Feedback.

The new bags are loaded with features that the previous version lacked. The tin-tie has been replaced with a ziplock without having to cut the bag itself. Located on the back is a fold, which when pulled, it opens up the ziplock and the coffee. A slightly larger size and wider bottom adds to the aesthetics and stability of the bag on a counter top. We are also currently working on a multicolored label format to separate the coffee based on espresso, decaf, regular, and exclusive coffees.

As Soon As Today!

We already out of the old bags! These new, white ziplock bags will be filled and stocked on our retail shelf immediately. The transition will be quick like a band-aid, and we couldn’t be happier about the UPgrade!

We have been fortunate in receiving this excellent honey process crop from Peru. For nearly a decade we have been purchasing Cafe Femenino’s Peru, and each year we consistently find improvements in their quality. Although this is technically not a Cafe Femenino crop, the wife, Elianita Oblitas, is a Cafe Femenino producer. Below you will read about what makes the Honey Process so special, the notes we gain from the cup, and a little more information about its producers.

About Honey Process

The Process

The basic principle of Honey method lies in picking only perfectly ripe cherries. We achieve this by measuring their sugar content (brix grades) during the ripening period.

At the end of each harvest day, freshly picked cherries are collected, weighed and pulped in manual or electrical pulpers. With their mucilage still fully attached, they are spread on African drying beds. These raised beds are made usinglocally sourced bamboo, wire mesh and black plastic netting (serán).

Depending on weather conditions, the usual drying cycle takes 10-12 days. At the end of this stage, the water content of the beans should be approx. 11 %.

Environmental Benefits

The true benefit of Honey method is the lack of water used. Not a single drop is wasted for pulping, washing or fermenting. Therefore, comparing to the traditional washed method, there are provable savings of around 2000 l per bag of green beans (60 kg).

Honey method can be easilyimplemented in remote areas where it eliminates the difficulties with trucking freshly picked cherries to wet mills, usually situated far away from the farm. This often causes problems with unwanted fermentation during the trip and thus potential degradation of quality.

Another important advantage of Honey process is its economical factor. The cost of purchasing a single pulper is incomparable to investing into a fully equipped wet mill. Furthermore, using traditional African drying beds rather than mechanical dryers (guardiolas) saves huge amounts of electricity or fossil fuels. All this makes the Honey method the most environmentally friendly coffee processing technique at present time.

Impact on Cup Profile

The drying of the parchment with all the mucilage still attached has a direct impact on the sweetness of the cup. Honey coffees have generally very unique cup profile, characterized by its distinct sweetness, enhanced fruit notes and sweet acidity on the taste and aftertaste.

Our Profile

The aroma of freshly iced carrot cake wafts from the cup. Notes of Bit-O-Honey candies fill your palate, leading to juicy boysenberry. The acidity is teasingly bright and the body is velvet on the tongue. One’s first thought after the sip is that of a fig on thin toast finish.

The Producers

Raul Yañis and his wife Elianita Oblitas worked together on this production from Cocochó, Peru at 1,700m elevation. Raul is a veterinarian while Elianita is a Cafe Femenino producer – which is how we found ourselves being offered this amazing crop. They have two daughters, one studying agronomy with a Cup For Education scholarship (Coffee Holding Company non-profit). In ordinance with their organic certification, they use irrigation systems, composting with manure and coffee pulp, and the coffee drying racks are covered with netting as a roof to protect from rain/moisture.

For wholesale questions on this amazing crop, please call or email. Otherwise for the home users, pick up a bag today!

The days of disposable foodservice wares are coming to an end in Minneapolis. This Earth Day, April 22nd, the city of Minneapolis will be taking a step towards greener living by enacting the Environmentally Acceptable Packing Ordinance. The city ordinance, which was approved in spring of last year, forbids foodservice establishments from using single-use, disposable containers made from rigid polystyrene (plastic marked with a ‘6’ inside the recycling symbol) and expanded polystyrene (also known as Styrofoam). Once the ordinance goes into effect, restaurants will need to use more eco-friendly options, such as recyclable, reusable and compostable packaging. Certain disposable foodservice items will not be included in the ban at this time, including utensils, straws and lids for hot cups. Health inspectors will be required to verify that foodservice businesses are, in fact, using acceptable packaging, and those who do not comply may be issued a warning or citation. The graphic below illustrates some forms of acceptable and unacceptable packaging options.

This ordinance is far from the first of its kind. Over 100 other cities across the country have enacted similar regulations. Part of the reasoning behind it is that the foam containers are fairly inefficient to recycle and therefore, Minneapolis does not. Relatively few cities across the nation do. The inefficiency comes from the fact that the majority of the content of the foam containers is actually just air, with only about 5% of the container being recyclable plastic. There is equipment that can be purchased to condense the material; however, it is quite expensive. Additionally, these containers are most easily recycled when they are clean and free of residue, which is very challenging when using a single-sort system.

This ordinance also brings about a great opportunity for you to encourage your customers to bring their own reusable cup! Many cafés offer discounts to customers who bring their own cup to reduce waste and save on the cost of supplies. Your customers will love the discount they get and appreciate the efforts that you are making to be environmentally friendly! UP Coffee Roasters is a proud purveyor of KeepCups, a reusable to-go coffee cup! They are available in glass or plastic and sizes ranging from four ounces to 16 ounces.

With these changes coming, is your business ready? Are you in need of a new vendor for eco-friendly packaging? UP Coffee Roasters has got your business covered! In addition to distributing award-winning, freshly roasted coffee, we also carry a variety of eco-friendly packaging options for your café, restaurant, gelato shop or other foodservice business! We have various options for paper hot cups, java jackets, cold cups, plates, clamshell to-go containers, compostable flatware, napkins, etc.! There is no minimum order and if you are located in St. Paul or Minneapolis, you can even receive weekly orders via our delivery van. Customers are also always welcome to stop by our warehouse, located in Northeast Minneapolis, to pick up their orders to avoid shipping costs and visit with our friendly staff. For a limited time, if you decide to switch to UP Coffee Roasters as your vendor for eco-friendly foodservice ware, we’ll throw in a free gift!

Over the last several years you may have noticed some changes in the food industry and the way people source, buy and talk about food. The specialty foods market is on the rise and is expected to reach 100 billion dollars by 2016. According to the Consumer Report, the specialty food industry is growing approximately three times as fast as the regular food industry. A study reported on in Fancy Food and Culinary Products states that 59 percent of U.S. consumers have purchased specialty products. Top contenders amongst specialty food purchases include chocolate, coffee and tea (all falling within the top 10 items). Not only are people buying these items, but they’re making very conscious decisions about it, going out of their way to seek out retailers who offer specialized products and making purchases online for specific items.

While better quality undoubtedly plays a role in the decision to purchase specialty items, there are other motivations as well. Products that are produced sustainably rank high on the priority list for many consumers. According to a Consumer Report produced by the Specialty Food Association, 84 percent of specialty food consumers find value in sustainably produced products. This often means seeking out certifications such as All Natural, Organic, Fair Trade, GMO-Free or locally produced items.

We at UP Coffee Roasters pride ourselves on providing products that are made with recycled materials, are biodegradable/recyclable, organic, all natural and fair trade. Our work with Café Femenino helps support women in the coffee industry and build stronger farming communities. Our goal to provide organically produced coffee whenever possible speaks to our commitment to environmental consciousness. Not to mention all the electricity needed to power our roastery comes from sustainable solar energy via our 10 kilowatt solar panels. We understand that with every purchase consumers make they are voting with their wallets for what types of products and companies they want to support. So when your café, restaurant or shop is selling or serving Organic and Fair Trade coffee and tea, or All Natural or Organic soups, milk alternatives and syrups from UP Coffee Roasters, make sure you are letting your customers know! They will love hearing about how the dollars they’re spending have a positive impact on the people and communities that produce those items.

While I acknowledge that this has little to do with coffee, and by “little” I actually mean “nothing,” it is an interesting study nonetheless and worthy of our perusal.

Please note that Upper Midwest Gourmet is firmly entrenched in Popville, and we expect you to cheap canadian viagra honor that vernacular when placing orders. And yes, I realize that we don’t sell Pop. I mean Soda.

As most of you saw or heard on the news recently, the 35W bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed yesterday.” Fortunately our office was already closed by then and everyone from here had already left and crossed the river.” Many of you know that our exit off the highway is at the end of this bridge and we use it everyday, many times a day.” We are very grateful that all our families are safe and we feel the sorrow of our fellow Minnesotans who had family members on the bridge during the disaster.” Thanks to all of you who’ve emailed and called to check on us today.” Your concern for us and well wishing was very much appreciated.” We will do everything possible to keep this tragedy from affecting our service but hope everyone will understand any delays in shipping that may have occurred.” We don’t believe there were any problems but we won’t know until Monday if anything occurred beyond our doors.” We are sending much of our staff home early for the rest of this week” and next week while” they try and find ways to reroute the nearly 200,000 vehicles that crossed that bridge daily.” Again, the inconvenience we’ll suffer is nothing compared to the loss others are experiencing and we all feel very lucky today.